Its local names are
Peelak(Hindi,Gujarati,Marathi)
Poshnul, Poshinul (Kashmiri)
Sona Bau (Bengali)
Vanga pandu (Telugu)
Manjakkili(Malayalam)
It is of the size of a myna.Its colour is bright golden yellow with black in wings and tail, and a conspicuous black streak through the eye.Female has a dull colour and more green shade.They are found singly or in pairs among leafy trees and wooded country.
Distribution
They are distributed practically all over the Indian union excepting north-east India.Also found upto 2000m in the Himalayas ,Bangladesh,Pakistan and Sri Lanka.Not found in Myanmar.Resident in some areas, migrant in others.An individual ringed in Bhavnagar,Gujarat in Sep 1961 was recovered in Tadzhikistan in Central Asia in Jun 1971.Our only Indian race kundoo differs from the European chiefly in that its black eye-streak extends behind the eye.
Habits
Its habits are arboreal.A dweller of open but well wooded country , partial to groves of large trees around villages and cultivation, and in gardens and along roadsides even in noisy towns.It has strong dipping flights.
Call
A harsh cheeah and clear fluty whistles something like peelo.
Food
Insects,banyan and peepul figs and other fruits and berries , also flower nectar.
Nesting
Nesting season is from April to July.Nest is a beautifully woven deep cup of grass and bast fibres bound with cobweb , suspended hammockwise in fork of leafy twig above 4-10m from the ground.Eggs are 2 to 3 , white , spotted with black or reddish brown.Both sexes share all domestic duties.
All photographs taken at Tadoba-Andhari Tiger reserve, Chandrapur,Maharashtra
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